Hearing voices: the impact of emotion, interpersonal relating and beliefs about voices, on people who hear voices (that other people do not hear)

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Schwannauer, Matthias

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Rodgers, Sheelagh

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O'Rourke, Suzanne

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Hayward, Linda Elizabeth

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2012-05-18T14:11:47Z

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2012-05-18T14:11:47Z

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2010-11-26

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http://hdl.handle.net/1842/5963

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Background
Beliefs about voices, their origin, intent and powerfulness can all impact on
the voice hearer, their level of distress and their need for help. Interpersonal
difficulties can exacerbate distress and be reflected in the person’s
relationship with their voices. Emotion regulation strategies, which may be
functional or dysfunctional help the person manage their reaction. This study
aims to investigate beliefs about voices, symptoms and interpersonal issues
as well as how well these areas predict emotion regulation strategies
Methods
Two groups of participants (18 with low and 16 with high omnipotence
scores) were recruited through their mental health workers. The participants
completed six self-report measures that assessed beliefs, emotion regulation
strategies, interpersonal difficulties, dimensions of voice hearing and
symptoms.
Results
Omnipotence scores differentiated some of the interpersonal issues and only
one symptom subscale (phobic anxiety); those who scored high on the
omnipotence subscale experienced more difficulties. For the emotion
regulation subscales, lower omnipotence scorers differed significantly from
the higher omnipotence scorers, using more external functional and
dysfunctional strategies. Regression analysis showed that ‘distress’ incorporating the PSYRATS emotion subscale, the BSI grand total and the
IIP-32 total predicted the use of dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies,
but omnipotence beliefs did not add much to this.
Conclusions
Overall voice hearers experience a range of beliefs about their voices.
Those with higher omnipotence beliefs find it difficult to socialise, be involved
with other people, and are too dependent and caring with reference to other
people. Omnipotent beliefs did not, in general, differentiate symptoms or
emotion regulation strategies. This would suggest that beliefs may not be
what determines distress and subsequent help seeking. Distress and
interpersonal issues predict the use of emotion regulation strategies with little
being added to the prediction by omnipotent beliefs; this suggests that there
may be an alternative to the single symptom approach. Further research is
required to assess the contribution made by emotion regulation to the
development, maintenance and course of voice hearing. Assessment and
interventions with reference to emotion regulation also require investigation.

en

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en

en

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The University of Edinburgh

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psychosis

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hearing voices

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beliefs

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emotion regulation

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interpersonal relating

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single-symptom

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hallucinations

en

dc.title

Hearing voices: the impact of emotion, interpersonal relating and beliefs about voices, on people who hear voices (that other people do not hear)